A Fran, a plan, a scan... baby registry.

It's gotten to be that time... time to pick out baby stuff, with eager relatives and talk of showers just around the corner.

We set up two gift registries, at Palacio de Hierro and Liverpool, the two main department stores in Mexico. Actually it was kind of like deja vu because that's where we did our wedding registry, too. They do things a tiny bit differently here with registries. They are a little more strict about things — like, when you get married, you have to show them your marriage certificate in order to close out the registry. For a baby, you don't have to show the birth certificate or anything, but they set some other restrictions like you must be four months along to get started. I guess they have these rules because they have nice incentives — you get a little present when you register (a diaper bag from Liverpool and a little basket thing from Palacio that had a prenatal yoga DVD) and then you get cards that give you discounts throughout the store. In addition, in the end you get a gift card that amounts to a percentage of what people bought you off the registry.

As I have mentioned before, baby things (like a lot of things) are quite a bit more expensive here than in the U.S. So, we'll probably end up buying some key things in the U.S. when we visit in October. But, for basics and some baby shower gift options, we did the registries. Or shall I say, Francisco did the registries. First, we went together to Liverpool, although he kept control of the scanner. At the end when we turned it in, they printed out a list of what we had scanned. It was huge! Apparently, every time I turned around, the daddy-to-be was scanning everything he saw. He told me it was therapeutic! (We even saw a cute little stuffed chick that we liked, so he scanned it nine times. To be fair, we are thinking about a farmy-theme nursery. Still, I am afraid when people see that number they might think it's a mistake.)

I hope people don't think we're being greedy... it's just so fun to pick out cute baby things! And we did control ourselves. I mean, the 3,000-peso Burberry baby jacket? Baby Dior baby bottles? We drew the line there.

Even if we only receive a few things off the list it definitely entertained us for a couple of Sunday afternoons.